Residents flee toxic chemicals from oil spill

LA PAZ, Guimaras – Hundreds of residents on the blackened coasts of Guimaras Island were being evacuated Thursday amid fears of toxic fumes unleashed by the Philippines’ worst oil spill, officials said.

Beaches were being cordoned off and residents of La Paz and nearby villages were being told to move inland after two weeks spent battling the black ooze from the Solar I tanker that sank on August 11.

The orders were issued by Guimaras Gov. Rahman Nava based on warnings issued by toxicologists commissioned by the health department, said Ramon Ortiz, a La Paz official who manned a checkpoint outside the village.

The fishing hamlet of about 400 people was almost deserted at noon as Ortiz, armed with a machete and a protective face mask and aided by other district officials, flagged down motorists to enforce the order.

At the community basketball court, blue tarp partly covered a huge stack of sacks laden with oil-slicked sand and debris.

The pile, which Ortiz said weighed about 100 tons, was oozing with a sticky asphalt-colored fluid under the brutal heat of the tropical sun.

(For the full story, click Ick.)

Neighboring provinces aid Guimaras

By Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Carla Gomez,
and Christine O. Avendaño

BACOLOD CITY — The League of Provinces of the Philippines and neighbors of Guimaras province on Wednesday gave the oil slick-hit province 6.5 million pesos at a meeting of the governors of the Visayas at the Negros Occidental provincial capitol in Bacolod City.

The governments of Aklan, Antique, Negros Occidental, Capiz and Iloilo gave 200,000 pesos each to the stricken province, while the League of Provinces of the Philippines gave 500,000 pesos.

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, who told Gov. JC Rahman Nava that the grief of Guimaras over the oil spill devastation is shared by Cebuanos, gave 5 million pesos in aid.

“That is the beauty of the Visayan governors who are very solid and very close. We cooperate and support each other. If there were federal governments already we would be ready for it,” Antique Governor Salvacion Zaldivar-Perez said.

The Visayan governors also passed a resolution calling on Petron to hasten the cleanup of the M/T Solar I oil spill off the coast of Guimaras, Negros Oriental Gov. George Arnaiz said.

As this developed, Secretary Joseph Ace Durano said Thursday his department will embark on a program to bring back tourists to Guimaras, which caters mostly to domestic tourists, in three months’ time.

A 220-kilometer-stretch of Guimara’s coastline has been swamped with oil from the sunken tanker Solar 1 but its western coast has escaped the ravages of the oil spill.

“Upon the instructions of the President, we are undertaking a program just for Guimaras so that domestic tourism traffic will return there,” he told reporters in Malacañang after attending President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s round table discussion on the promotion of central Philippines as a super region.

The western side of Guimaras is where 17 of the island’s 24 beach resorts are located, and all are untouched by the August 11 oil spill that was caused when the tanker, carrying two million liters of oil, sank in bad weather off Guimaras.

Durano said that the minute the Department of Environment and Natural Resources certifies the seven affected beach resorts as cleared of toxins from the oil spill, the DoT would include them in its promotion of the island.

The DENR had been given until next week to complete its testing of waters in the seven affected beach resorts.

(For the full stories, click INQ7.net, Aug. 31, 2006.)

Alsons firm gets free fuel from oil spill

THE oil sludge to be collected from the coastal waters off Guimaras Island will be shipped to Misamis Oriental in southern Philippines where it will be used for the production of cement, Defense chief Avelino Cruz said Thursday.

In a news briefing, Cruz said that on Sunday, a Light Cargo Tanker contracted by Petron Corp. and the Philippine Coast Guard would dock at an abandoned pier in Guimaras to collect the oil sludge.

“It (LCT) has a capacity of 2,000 metric tons and it will barge out (the oil sludge). Five dump trucks will be delivering the oil sludge into the barge for it to be delivered to Holcim cement in Misamis Oriental so that these oil sludge can be burned as fuel for making of cement,” said Cruz, who also chairs government’s Task Force Guimaras.

In its web site, Holcim Philippines Inc. claims to be the leading cement manufacturer in the Philippines, employing 1,400 employees in four plants across the archipelago.

It operates in four major plants – one in La Union, another in Bulacan, a third in Davao City and the Lugait Plant in Misamis Oriental. These plants account for a total installed clinker production capacity per year of 7.2 million metric tons and annual cement production capacity of 8.7 million metric tons.

(Click GMA News for the full story, Aug. 31, 2006. )

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OH guess who owns Holcim Cement? You have three chances. Give up?

While it is a global brand based in Europe, Holcim in the Philippines is a partnership between Union Cement Corp. (Hi Cement Corp., Davao Union Cement Corp. and Bacnotan Cement Corp.) and Alsons Cement Corp. The latter is owned by Petron chair Nick Alcantara’s family. Nick Alcantara is also a director of several firms under the Alcantara Group of Companies: Alsons Corp., Conal Corp., Alsons Insurance Brokers Corp., Saranggani Agricultural Co., Inc., Alsons Aquaculture Co., Inc., Alsons Development & Investment Corp., Alsons Land Corp., C. Alcantara & Sons, Inc., just to name a few.

For more on Holcim, click here and for Nick Alcantara’s resumé, click PSE form.

Only 1 of 21 ‘black product’ tankers double-hulled – Marina

•‘Urgent legislation’ urged to address problems

By Joel Guinto

ONLY one of 21 tankers in the country that carry bunker fuel and other “black products” is double-hulled in accordance with international standards, the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) has confirmed.

Marina administrator Vicente Suazo Jr. bared this fact at a meeting of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, chaired by Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz Jr., in Camp Aguinaldo.

The M/T Solar I, whose August 11 sinking triggered the Visayas oil spill considered one of the worst in the country, was a single-hulled vessel but had a “double bottom,” meaning its lower portion was made of two layers of metal, Suazon said.

A double-hulled vessel, on the other hand, means the sides and bottom parts are made of two watertight layers so when the outer hull breaks, the inner hull can still protect the ship’s often hazardous cargo.

To address this problem, Cruz said “one proposal of the Marina is to require all oil tankers to be double hull by April 2008. This is the direction they are headed.”

There are a total of 214 tankers in the country, only 148 of which are operational and only 21 of which carry “black products.”

(For the full story, click INQ7.net, Aug. 31, 2006.)

GMA has no budget for oil spill

By Veronica Uy

THE Senate will convert the two-billion-peso equity rental fee for the Metro Rail Transit in the 46.9-billion peso supplemental budget approved by the House of Representatives to the Guimaras oil spill fund, Senator Franklin Drilon told reporters Thursday.

The head of the Senate committee on finance said the two-billion-peso equity rental fee for the MRT was not included in the 2006 National Expenditure Program and was only “inserted for the creditors of MRT” by the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) in the supplemental budget.

“We see no rhyme, no reason for this insertion…We [will] remove this two billion pesos and put it to the Guimaras oil spill fund, which will be used for the oil spill operations so that funds are immediately available and more importantly, will be used for livelihood and other assistance to those who are adversely affected by the Guimaras oil spill,” he said, noting that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had not allotted any funds for Guimaras.

After the House transmits its version of the bill to the Senate, they would conduct hearings, put it on the floor for debate not later than September 11, and pass it that same week.

(Click INQ7.net for the full story, Aug. 31, 2006.)

Petron: Japanese ship can’t salvage Solar I

ALTHOUGH the arrival of Japanese ship Shinsei Maru came as a sigh of relief, distressed coastal villagers will have to wait a bit longer before the oil leak scare in Central Philippines comes to an end.

Petron Corp. told dzBB radio Thursday that the “actual salvaging” of the sunken tanker MT Solar I would only begin after another vessel arrives in the Guimaras Strait to carry out the job.

Meanwhile, Malacañang admitted Thursday that the Solar I sinking highlighted government’s helplessness against oil spills even as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo vowed that those reponsible for the tragedy “would pay dearly.”

“The current oil spill off Guimaras illustrates the seriousness of protecting our oceans and marine resources and our helplessness in dealing with accidents of this magnitude,”Mrs Arroyo, in a speech read by Presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor, said.

The prepared speech was read during the conferment ceremony for the 41st Master in National Security Administration graduates held at Malacanang’s Heroes’ Hall.

(For the full story, click GMA News.)

4 of 9 owners of sunken ship already out of the country

By Tetch Torres

FOUR of the nine owners of an oil tanker that sank into the Guimaras Strait have left the country long before the Bureau of Immigration placed them on its watchlist, an Immigration official said Thursday.

Japanese nationals Tomoki Tsubomoto, Hiromi Irishika and Mototsugu Yamaguchi departed the Philippines in May 2001, while Gregorio Flores left only last May, said Gary Mendoza, chief of the Immigration Regulations Divisions.

The nine, owners of Sunshine Maritime Development Corp. which operated the sunken M/T Solar 1, were barred Wednesday from leaving the country.

But another Japanese incorporator, Hiroyasu Yamaguchi, arrived in the Philippines on Wednesday last week, Mendoza said.

In his hold-departure order, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said the company officials were being investigated for possible violations of environmental laws relating to the oil spill.

(Click INQ7.net for the full story, Aug. 31, 2006.)

A Guimaras fisherman’s ‘personal’ account of the oil spill

‘I have no other place to go’

By Rodolfo Galuna

MY name is Rodolfo Galuna and I am 52 years old. I am a fisherman and live in the village of Citio Alman Sur in the south of Guimaras that was affected badly by the oil. I came here 12 years ago and built this house right on the shore. My wife Susana and I have six children, they all go to school, the eldest is in second grade high school. I have three boats. I built them myself, I need 15 days to make an outrigger boat.

12 nets I have. The biggest is 6 feet high and 300 feet long. I go fishing twice a day: from 3 o’clock in the morning until noon and from 2 pm to 5 pm. Sometimes I go as far as five miles off shore. On good days I catch more than six kilogrammes of fish, on bad days only one. I don’t sell the fish, it’s only for my family.

On Friday, 12 August, I was walking down to the shore from my house when suddenly it was slippery under my feet. I looked down and saw black sludge gushing between my toes. I knew it was oil. Then I looked up and saw all the mangroves were black up to the waterline. I tried to stop the oil from coming, but it didn’t work. My whole backyard is full of oil.

(For the full story, click Greenpeace.)

Iloilo reiterates boycott of Petron products

By Lory Ann B. Bilbao

THE Iloilo Provincial Board recognized Petron Corporation’s efforts in containing the spill caused by its chartered oil hauler, M/T Solar 1, which sank, but the pronouncement of boycotting its petroleum products remains.

“I’ve seen the sincerity and effort of the corporation to contain the spill, but there was no assurance of totally solving the problem, which is to re-float the sunken vessel which they chartered or siphoning the remaining 1.8 million liters,” Board Member Domingo B. Oso Jr. said.

Oso was the proponent of the board’s resolution “encouraging Ilonggos to boycott Petron products” if it does not re-float the vessel or siphon the unspilled oil in M/T Solar 1.

Petron asked that they be given until November to properly act on the problem but the PB members find it too long a timeline that the ship might blow up and the spill to totally contaminate the Visayan Sea.

(Click Sunstar for the full story, Aug. 31, 2006.)

From our mailbox…

Aug. 29, 2006

Dear Stella,

You may find this of interest.

As the world is trying to help, our government remains complacent. All they had to do was ask for help.

Anyways, we spoke to (Guimaras) Gov.Nava and he said he would take action. I am copying Javier (Claparols) as he spoke to the Governor and I spoke to his staff to take action on this. Then we referred it to PAWB to Dir. Mundita Lim and she will bring this information to the Coast Guard and she as PAWB-Director will act on the biodiversity as we have a marine protected area there. We are still waiting for a reply.

Meanwhile we have instructed our friends in Talisay, Negros Occ. to gather as much coconut husk as possible to protect the coast. A mangrove forest has so much ecosystem services,such as the food chain. Once gone it wont take 5 years, it will never recover again. It must be protected.

All the best,

Antonio M. Claparols
President
Ecological Society of the Philippines

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Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 5:18 PM
Subject: Re: Philippines oil spill

Hi Antonio,

I believe the request will need to come from one of the government authorities in the Philippines and could go to Keith (Brown of the Australia Maritime Safety Authority) who will bring it to the attention of his CEO, Clive Davidson.

I believe that the coast guards will have an incident management officer who could possibly play a role in making the necessary government-to-government links, however perhaps Keith can advise on how else this might happen.

I think the issue is that the authorities in the Philippines have asked for international support but not directly to the Australian authorities.

Regards,
Techa Beaumont (Ms)
Executive Director
Mineral Policy Institute
http://www.mpi.org.au
tel: +61 (0)2 9011 6884
mob:+61 (0)409 318 406
skype: techabeau
yahoo messenger: techa.rm
PO Box 89
Erskineville, Sydney
Australia 2043

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Dear Techa,

Thank you for the email to Keith. With this email may we formally request assistance from the the Australian Marine Safety Authority?

We have tried to call the Governor of Giumaras island but got no signals.

In as much as this is a marine disaster in the center of the rich and diverse Visayan Sea. At the center of the Philippine Archepelago which will destroy the riches fishing grounds as well as the protected areas and livelihood of the people there.

May we with this email request for assistance on how to contain and salvage the tanker, thus saving the rich marine biodiversity and more.

Hoping to hear from you soonest.

All the best,

Antonio M. Claparols
President
Ecological Society of the Philippines
53 Tamarind Road
Forbes Park, Makati City
Philippines
tel-63-2-633-9626
fax-63-2-6317357

———————————————————————————————

—– Original Message —–
From: Techa Beaumont
To: keith.brown@amsa.gov.au
Cc: srkloff@hotmail.com ; jamc@mozcom.com ; beau.baconguis@ph.greenpeace.org ; senator.milne@aph.gov.au
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 4:15 AM
Subject: RE: Philippines oil spill

Dear Keith

Many thanks again for your generous time and helpful information
on the phone today.

As you suggested, I have provided some background information on the situation.

I’ve just pasted extracts from the most relevant articles and some emails over the last few days below.

You can find a lot more info simply by googling “Philippines oil spill.”

I have also cc’d some important contacts in case they need to communicate with you directly.

Philippines contacts who are in the area and can provide you with
more detailed information are Antonio M. Claparols (jamc@mozcom.com),
Javier Claparols (jmc1@mozcom.com), who are with the IUCN CEESP committee, and also Beau Baconqius (beau.baconquis@ph.greenpeace.org) who is on the Greenpeace ship that is currently providing support to local
authorities in dealing with the incident. I’ve also cc’d Sandra Kloft, the chair
of the working group I sit on of the IUCN economic, social and cultural policy committee (CEESP) and Christine Milne in her capacity as the vice president of the IUCN (World Conservation Union.)

It does appear that the company involved has brought in some people from the International Tanker Oil Pollution Federation according to Clemente Cancio, president of tanker owner Sunshine Maritime Development
Corp., but this is the only international intervention that has so far been provided.

I do hope that Australia is able to intervene to provide some support for this growing tragedy, and thanks again for your assistance thus far.

Any thoughts or advice you do have would be of great value to our friends in the Phillipines.

Kind Regards,

Techa Beaumont (Ms)
Executive Director
Mineral Policy Institute
http://www.mpi.org.au
tel: +61 (0)2 9011 6884
mob:+61 (0)409 318 406

Solar I in ‘upright position’

(UPDATE) THE SUNKEN oil tanker M/T Solar I has been found at the bottom of the Panay Gulf, Philippine Coast Guard commandant, Vice Admiral Arthur Gosingan, said Thursday.

With the help of a sonar-equipped submersible from the Japanese salvage vessel Shinsei Maru, the vessel was found in an “upright position” and “listing slightly on the starboard [right] side” on the seabed, Gosingan said in a television interview.

He said no oil was seen pouring out of the vessel although there were signs of an earlier leakage, as indicated by a crack on the right side of the ship and the smudges of oil around it.

“They have not detected any leakage whatsoever… They have not observed leakage or spill coming out of the ship,” Gosingan said.

“The report is that [the ship] is still upright. It is not overturned,” he said.

Gosingan said it was “impossible at this time” to say how the M/T
Solar 1 would be retrieved from the ocean, given the data from the
Japanese vessel, which arrived in the country early Wednesday evening.

Officials are considering siphoning out the remaining oil from the tanker, entombing the ship or refloating it to the surface.

The BRP Edsa Dos escorted the Shinsei Maru, from the Japanese firm Fukada Marine and Salvage Works, the Coast Guard chief said.

The M/T Solar 1, which was carrying two million liters of bunker fuel owned by Petron Corp., sank into the Guimaras Strait amid stormy weather last August 11. Two of the tanker’s crewmembers remain missing.

Experts estimate that about 1.3 liters have leaked out since then. The resulting slick has damaged fishing grounds, beaches, marine reserves, and mangroves in Guimaras Island and portions of Iloilo and Negros Occidental.

(Published on INQ7.net, Aug. 31, 2006.)

Tanker operators seek incentives for conversion

By DARWIN G. AMOJELAR

A GROUP of tanker operators wants the government to grant more incentives to allow members to comply with a proposal to replace their single-hull tankers by 2008.

Leonardo O. Odono, executive director of Philippine Interisland Shipping Association, said members do not have the capability to acquire double-hull tankers, each of which costs about $15 million for a 3,500-ton capacity.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) requires all oil tankers operating in international waters to comply with the double-hull requirement by April 2008.

As early as February the government has been consulting tanker operators with regard to the IMO mandate, Vicente Suazo, administrator of the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), said.

(Published in the Manila Times ,Aug. 31, 2006.)

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SHOULDN’T the protection of the environment be incentive enough?

Lessons from a disaster

By Jonathan A. Dela Cruz

TWO weeks into the devastating Guimaras oil spill is not too soon the government to draw a lesson. First, the matter of disaster response and accountability. While we agree that we should all put our heads together in speeding the clean up and spare Guimaras and the other affected areas from a second or even third disaster by getting the remaining three-fourths of the 2 million liter Solar I cargo out of the waters as soon as possible, that should not be used as a cover to spare or diminish the responsibilities of those concerned.

For if truth be told, apart from Petron’s unapologetic resort to quibbling and legalisms in response to its principal responsibility as the polluter-of-record in the country’s and possibly Asean’s worst oil spill, the government’s feeble response to this disaster has been downright contemptible. For an administration which prides itself in micro managing every aspect of national life and a corporate giant which trumpets its “good governance” record every which way it can, the response was by itself disastrous.

Except for the local government and the provincial disaster control committee (PDCC) and the Coast Guard which had to make do with their limited resources, there was no real government presence in and around the disaster area until President Arroyo decided to visit the province nine days after the tragedy, That it took Malacañang days before it ordered the creation of a task force to coordinated government response to the disaster was very telling.

Did the timid response had anything to do with the fear of liabilities which Petron management may have injected into the entire response formulation? Did it have anything to do with the reputed standing of Petron chairman Nick Alcantara with the Palace and the business community which would have brought that relationship into closer scrutiny?

Suffice it to say that in this instance the Palace failed miserably to live up to its responsibility and its reputation at a time when its presence was most needed. Even DENR Secretary Angie Reyes whose department introduced itself enthusiastically into a largely phantom “environmental issue” in the ongoing Poro Point controversy was nowhere to be found at a time when his presence was expected and was deemed critical.

What we had expected from both Petron and the national government was a more active and creative presence.

(Click Malaya for the rest of the column, Aug. 30, 2006.)

Okay, so there’s an upside to this…but really?

‘Oil spill helped in decline of criminality’

By Ruby P. Silubrico

POLICE Regional Director Geary Barias said Tuesday that despite the damage caused by the oil spill in some areas of Guimaras, it helped in the decline of criminality in the area.

“No petty crimes have been noticed since the start of the oil spill. Guimaras is really a peaceful place,” Barias said.

He added that because of the immediate response of Petron Corp. and local government units with the “Food for Work” program, the residents, including teens and bystanders, are kept busy.

“Instead of having a drinking session during their free time, they are in seashore to work and earn money and it really help our bystanders,” Barias added.

(Click Sunstar, Aug. 30, 2006.)

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IMMEDIATE response? What can this guy be referring to?

Oil spill hits fishing grounds; Japanese salvage ship arrives in Iloilo

ABOARD THE EDSA II, Philippines – A sunken tanker responsible for the Philippines’ worst environmental disaster is leaking less oil, but the slick it caused has reached the country’s richest fishing grounds, the Philippine Coast Guard said Wednesday.

Daniel Gayosa, who is commanding the search and rescue vessel EDSA II at the wreck site, told reporters the sunken 998-ton tanker, Solar 1, was leaking “less than 10 liters” of oil per day.

This compared with about 500 liters per day shortly after it sank in extremely deep waters south of Guimaras island on August 11.

“We still don’t know if there is still oil in there. Those tanks are also watertight and it’s possible some of them are still intact. (But) we still don’t know their status,” Gayosa said.

He said the oil that had leaked was “down to a sheen” two weeks after black sludge contaminated hundreds of kilometers of coastline and damaged a large marine reserve in Guimaras.

Meanwhile, Japanese salvage ship Senshei Maru arrived in the country Wednesday afternoon, ABS-CBN News learned.

The salvage ship arrived at the Iloilo Strait at 4 p.m. and is now anchored at the Iloilo International Port.

Reports said the salvage ship’s first mission is to confirm the exact location of the sunken M/T Solar 1 that has been leaking oil under Panay Gulf.

Officials estimated Solar 1’s location at 600 meters underwater at the Panay Gulf.

The Japanese ship is equipped with seabed scanners and has a remotely operated submersible that can determine the position, condition and the exact location of the sunken tanker.

Petron Corp. signed Fukuda Salvage and Marine Works Co. Ltd. a $20 million contract for the services of the salvage ship.

(For the full stories, click Fishing grounds and Salvage ship, Aug. 30, 2006.)

DoJ to look into agencies’ liability for oil spill

By Tetch Torres, Thea Alberto

THE Department of Justice (DoJ) will investigate whether lapses by the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) and Philippine Coast Guard could have helped lead to the August 11 sinking of the M/T Solar I off Guimaras, which triggered one of the country’s worst oil spills.

“We will go beyond the ship owner and captain. We will see if Marina and (the) Coast Guard have not been alert enough to determine the seaworthiness of M/T Solar I,” Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said they would see whether officials of the two agencies might be liable for gross inexcusable negligence under Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft Law.

Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) is waiting for complaints from Guimaras resort owners whose properties were damaged by the oil spill.

PNP Director General Oscar Calderon said CIDG Director Jesus Verzosa is already in Western Visayas “to see the complaints of the owners who were affected by the spill. I believe there are some resorts whose owners would like to present also.”

However, Calderon clarified that the PNP was not yet conducting any investigation.

“We are just taking the complaint, and then we will look for the proper court or agency to take action on these cases; we will just document the cases and refer these to other agencies,” he said.

He added that the PNP will only act as a support group in the investigation aspect since consultations with the multi-agency Task Force Guimaras and Department of Environment and Natural Resources have yet to be done, he added.

Calderon also said he has ordered Western Visayas police director, “Chief Superintendent Geary Barrias, to maximize our policemen in helping in cleaning the area…we have policemen helping the cleanup in Guimaras.”

(From INQ7.net, Aug. 30, 2006)

RP oil spill likened to Alaska’s Exxon Valdez

MIAG-AO – Unchecked damage from one of the worst-ever oil spills in the Philippines has raised fears of a local disaster similar in scale to major catastrophes like that of the Exxon Valdez.

While the amount of oil aboard the Solar I when it sank off Guimaras Island is a fraction of what the Valdez disgorged when it foundered off Alaska in 1989, experts say many more people could ultimately be affected.

Only one-tenth of the Solar’s oil has leaked so far, leaving what experts call a ticking time-bomb on the ocean floor – and while the Valdez spilled in a relatively remote area, hundreds of thousands of people depend on the Guimaras region for their livelihoods.

Marine biologist Nestor Yunque said the number of Alaskans dependent on the ecosystem harmed by the Valdez was minuscule compared to those on the coasts of Guimaras, Panay and Negros islands.

The speed with which the oil reached the Guimaras coast is a key concern, Yunque said, noting that it took time for the Valdez crude to hit the Alaska coast, allowing for some chemical disintegration of the pollutants.

“It took a while,” Yunque said. “It will probably take three or six months before we will be able to see the actual damage [here].”

The Alaska spill contaminated about 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometers) of coastline, killed a quarter-million sea birds, thousands of otters and hundreds of seals. Agence France-Presse

(Click INQ7.net for the full story, Aug. 30, 2006.)

Satellite images show oil slick threatens Negros Occidental

Satellite image on Aug. 24

Satellite image on Aug. 27

(Source: UNOSAT)

Tanker owner defends ship captain

THE owner of the sunken M/T Solar 1 on Wednesday defended the vessel’s captain before the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI), saying that Norberto Aguro is a “qualified master mariner,” ABS-CBN News reported.

This developed as officials of the company will be included in the Bureau of Immigration’s watch list.

Clemente Cancio of Sunshine Maritime Development Corp. (SMDC) said oil tankers are much safer and easier to handle than vessels hauling chemicals. The company hired Aguro since he was an expert in manning chemical tankers, he added.

BMI questioned why 20 crewmen were aboard the vessel when it was limited to 16.

Cancio replied by saying that Petron Corp., the company that chartered Solar 1, required at least two surveyors for the cruise. The Solar 1 came from Limay, Bataan and was scheduled to bring its cargo of bunker oil to Mindanao when it sank off Guimaras.

Meanwhile, ANC News reported that the hold-order came from the Department of Justice that said officials of SMDC should be placed on the bureau’s list of people who are at risk of fleeing an ongoing government probe.

Dionision Z. Parulan, Gregorio M. Flores, Clemente GR. Cancio, Mototsugu Yamaguchi, Hiroyasu Yamaguchi, Tomoki Tsubomoto, Hiromi Irishika, Roberto D. Mena, Angelita S. Buenaventura have been put on the list for possible violations of the Clean Water Act, Domestic Philippine Act, Revised Penal Code, Brown Environmental Law, and the Anti-Dummy Law, Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said records of the Articles of Incorporation and other records of the SMDC showed that majority of the incorporators of the company were Japanese.

At the same time, the task force created by Gonzalez has summoned Cancio; Nicasio Alcantara, chairman of Petron; Capt. Aguro; Vice Admiral Arthur Gosingan, Philippine Coast Guard Chief; and the crew of M/T Solar I – Herminio Renger, radioman; Jesse Angel, pumpman; Reynaldo Torio and Victorio Morados, oilers, to appear before the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Monday at 2 p.m.

(Click ABS-CBN News and INQ7.net for the full stories.)
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INTERESTING how fast the DOJ and Immigration bureau issued the hold-departure order in the Guimaras oil spill case, when both agencies turned the other way when a hold-departure order was being requested to prevent Jocjoc “fertilizer scam” Bolante from leaving the country during an ongoing Senate investigation.

Consistent rules and procedures is what this country needs not fools in the government.

Solar I still leaking; slick heading to Tubbataha

OIL continues to leak from the sunken tanker MT Solar I, a report submitted by the Japan Disaster Relief Team on Tuesday said.

The Japan Disaster Relief Team, composed of three Japan Coast Guard (JCG) experts and one JICA official, returned to Japan August 29 after concluding its examination and assessment of the Guimaras oil spill incident.

The assessment was made after a week-long operation in Guimaras Island from August 22 to 28, a press statement issued by the Japanese embassy said.

In its report, the team said that oil continues to leak out from the sunken tanker Solar-1.

The team did not say how much oil has leaked out although Philippine Coast Guard officials earlier said they believe that oil – about 500,000 to 700,000 liters – have leaked from the ruptured containers of the sunken vessel.

The report came a day before the arrival of a Japanese salvage ship – with a remotely operated underwater vehicle capable of conducting an underwater survey – in the Guimaras oil spill area.

The ship, called Shinsei Maru is expected in the Guimaras strait Wednesday night.

“The [oil] leak is continuous. [We have estimated that] 500,000 to 700,000 liters of oil have been spilled. That would be determined and confirmed once the [remote operated vehicle (ROV)] dives down to determine how many tankers have ruptured and how many liters of oil are still remaining in the vessel,” Coast Guard spokesman Joseph Coyme said at the weekly Fernandina Media Forum.

The figure is an increase from the Coast Guard’s initial estimate of 200,000 to 300,000 liters of oil that leaked out after the M/T Solar 1’s sinking on August 11, Coyme said. The vessel was carrying more than 1.8 million liters of oil when it sank.

Coyme said the oil slick has already affected about 3,000 families, seven coastal towns in Guimaras and Iloilo, 28 coastal barangays, 200 kilometers of coastline and 1,340 hectares of mangrove.

An ANC report said that the oil slick was breaking up and spreading to different areas in Western Visayas. The report said a portion of the spill is also heading toward Tubbataha Reef, which is located in the Sulu Sea, 98 nautical miles southeast of Puerto Princesa City in Palawan.

In Cebu City, environmentalist and lawyer Antonio Oposa said northern Cebu is now safe from the oil slick in Guimaras Island, according to a Sunstar report.

Oposa, head of the Visayan Sea Squadron and national environmental team leader of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, said that all the bunker oil in the sunken tanker has already seeped out.

His announcement that Bantayan Island is already safe was based on facts, he stressed, as radar satellite showed the direction of the spill.

(Click GMA News and ABS-CBN News for the full stories, Aug. 30, 2006.)

Reflections on a calamity

I NEED a passport to travel out of this country. I need a license to drive. My car must be registered so I can use it. If I tried to do any of these, without these documents, I could get into trouble.

How then does a tanker, fully laden with a hazardous cargo like fuel oil, receive clearance to leave port, in uncertain weather, when both its registration and the license of its captain have lapsed?

Collusion, you say. Is it possible that the shipowner and the company chartering the vessel have colluded? Maybe. But, will that be possible if the regulatory agents, whose job it is to inspect all vessels prior to departure, were not colluding as well?

And, if this happened with one fuel tanker leaving Bataan in early August, is it not possible that this same collusion may be happening in several sites, involving several corporations, ships, captains and regulatory agents, throughout the country?

The Guimaras spill is an environmental tragedy. The President says we now face a national calamity. She is right. The question is: “Is this calamity environmental? Or, at its very base, is this really a calamity of governance?”

The Philippine Coast Guard and the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) are the government agencies tasked to regulate ports and shipping. Among other things, they serve as a check-and-balance mechanism to ensure that laws are complied with and enforced. Ultimately, all these laws are created to serve and protect the nation and the millions of taxpayers who fund these agencies. When the Solar 1 was given clearance to leave Bataan, were our laws followed? And whose interests were served?

These thoughts disturb me. They make me wonder what the phrase “public service” means to us, both the governors and the governed. They make me wonder about the trillion pesos our lawmakers have budgeted to run our ship of state. They make me wonder about the many cases of graft and corruption that have been filed, but more than that, the many more that may never be discovered, filed and driven to a just conclusion. They make me think about those thousands of vehicles with red plates, emblazoned with the words “For Official Use Only” that many of us know are used for personal convenience, by “officials”.

I think about the millions of Filipinos who pay taxes for virtually every commodity they buy – from noodles, to cigarettes, to diesel fuel, to gin, to canned sardines – and still do not get the quality product they are paying for. And I wonder about the 25 million Filipinos who live on less than P100 per day.

We face a national calamity, no doubt. But all this goes way beyond Guimaras and the Visayan Seas. It is not merely environmental, it is systemic.

Yesterday, a Coast Guard officer was shown a satellite photograph that clearly showed a 50 kilometer oil slick in the Visayan Sea. The presence of the slick was verified that same day by three independent and credible private sources. The Coast Guard¹s reaction? No, there is no slick there.

A media person called me about the same photo. Her question? We want to know if you verified this slick. Why? The Coast Guard said it is not there.

If this is where we are today, we are in deep trouble.

Lorenzo Tan

(From INQ7.net, Aug. 28, 2006.)

From our mailbox…

GAWAD Kalinga’s number two man, Luis Oquiñena, called from Bacolod yesterday after coming from Guimaras. It seems GK will go to Guimaras a bit ahead of schedule because of the oil spill. It is now apparent that GK will be a potential force in any major disaster, as it is in any major slum upgrading. This imagery of GK is being conditioned into the minds of many by actual events and developments like Kalinga Luzon, Kalinga Leyte, and also Baseco.

Because of the oil spill, many coastal villages have no source of both food and income from the sea. Aside from any environmental work (cleaning up) which is not GK’s strong suit anyway, the main concern is to help feed thousands of people. Should there be any request from partners to help in this area, GK will work with the CFC (Couples for Christ) structure in Guimaras which has been set up to assist in relief work. Otherwise, GK moves into food production and community development – which is what we really want to do. I think we are already looking for places where we can be granted permission to build GK and also do food production work.

A multi-sectoral initiative in Cebu will be raising funds to help Guimaras. Some members are already partrners of GK in Cebu and it is probable that they will ask GK to combine efforts on the ground (our network and services with their funds). A few local companies and also Fil-Ams have indicated they want to be part of a more permanent GK intervention.

Boy Montelibano

(From Teddy M.)

What you can do

FOR those still thinking of ways to help Guimaras get out of the muck, you may help by supporting the Visayan Sea Squadron headed by environmentalist lawyer Antonio Oposa. The squadron has been at the forefront in the monitoring of the oil spill and clean-up operations of the resort island.

You may donate rubber boots and gloves and clinical masks to help protect the volunteers from the deadly contaminants in the oil sludge and its noxious fumes. The squadron will also accept chicken feathers and cut hair which can be used to help absorb the slick.

Donations may be dropped off at 12 Highland Drive, Blueridge A Katipunan, Quezon City or at the College of Fine Arts in UP Diliman.

You may also make donations and pledges in cash or in kind to help the poor residents of Guimaras survive this disaster. Help feed and clothe them by clicking on this web site called Project Sunrise . The site is a project of the provincial government of Guimaras in cooperation with the Canadian International Development Agency.

Cash donations may be deposited at any Land Bank of the Philippines branch to Account No. 1922-1000-35 (Provincial Government of Guimaras). A donation form may be downloaded from the site. I hope Land Bank management can do away with the usual inter-bank fees as a way of helping Guimaras recover.

Please give from the heart.

Muted response

By Ellen Tordesillas

My cousins, the Orendains, have a small beach resort in Guimbal, Iloilo and it is in danger of being ruined by the oil spill coming from MT Solar I that sank in the waters off Guimaras.

My cousin, Dolly O. Escobar, whose daughters, Marla and Carla manage Sunrise Beach (about 30 minutes away from Iloilo City), has been texting everybody last week to pray that the government do something to solve the problems that are endangering lives of people in Guimaras and Negros Occidental.

Dolly said the fumes and smell of oil can already be felt in Guimbal. Needless to say, business is down. With the strong winds and waves, they fear that it’s a matter of time before oil reaches their shores. To prevent that, the people in Guimbal are making booms containing feathers and hair to prevent the oil from reaching their shores.

Those are community efforts to alleviate the damage. There is the bigger task of cleaning up which should be the responsibility of the Petron, 40 percent owned by the government, and Sunshine Maritime Development Corporation.

A class suit by the affected communities of Iloilo should be pushed through to compel Petron and Sunshine Maritime to accept responsibility for the damage.

So far, the actuations of the government, Petron and Sunshine Maritime have been infuriating.

(Click Malaya for the full column, Aug. 30, 2006.)

Tourism chief belittles impact of oil spill

By Roderick T. dela Cruz

TOURISM Secretary Ace Durano yesterday said the oil slick infecting the waters and shores of several coastal towns in Guimaras will have minimal impact on international visitor arrivals to the Philippines.

“There are only 216 resort rooms in Guimaras province, which is a very small percentage of the country’s total resort room capacity,” Durano said.

Durano said the oil slick, caused by the sinking of Solar I tanker ship carrying 1.9 million liters in waters off Guimaras on Aug. 11, will not prevent the country from achieving its target of attracting three million foreign tourists in 2006.

“Guimaras is primarily a destination for domestic tourists. Overall, foreign visitor arrivals are not affected,” he said.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who visited Guimaras on Monday, also noted that only seven of the 24 resorts in the island-province were affected by the oil spill, as she encouraged tourists to visit the other unaffected 17 resorts.

(Click M. Standard Today for the full story, Aug. 30, 2006.)

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BUT of course! As long as Cebu gets the bulk of the tourists, right Ace? Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Paradise lost as tourists flee Guimaras resorts

By Cecil Morella
Agence France-Presse

NAGARAO – Resorts in the Philippines are starting to count the cost from the country’s worst oil spill as tourists shun the blackened beaches of what was once a tiny corner of paradise.

For Helen Stummer, more than 20 years of hard work virtually disappeared overnight when the oil tanker Solar I went down off Guimaras Island more than two weeks ago.

As waves foul-smelling oil started to wash up on the pristine beachfront of the Nagarao resort, her guests packed and left.

“Our investment is totally lost,” sighed Stummer, a Filipina who bought the uninhabited, 10-hectare (25-acre) coral outcrop on the southern edge of the Guimaras Strait with her German husband nearly a quarter-century ago.

Staff of the secluded, family-run tropical island haven valiantly fought back the giant slick with hastily cut down logs, bamboo and wild palm fronds, and the improvised effort managed to keep away most of the sludge.

But to no avail – mass cancellations of reservations have all but wiped out this year’s tourist season and most of next year’s.

“We are not talking about today and tomorrow,” she said of the crisis facing her and other island resort owners. “We are talking about years to come.”

The Nagarao has built a cult following among northern Europeans who flee the continent’s harsh winters.

(Click INQ7.net for the full story. Published Aug. 29, 2006)

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OH don’t worry Mrs. Stummer, the tourists will be back. After all the Arroyo government has now decided to call the environmental disaster “Solar I oil spill”, not “Guimaras oil spill.” Who are these jokers in Malacañang? Get a grip already!

Inmates go bald, donate hair for oil spill cleanup, but…

SOME 3,400 inmates in Quezon City Jail agreed to cut their hair Tuesday and donate it to clean up the oil spill off Guimaras island, TV Patrol World reported Tuesday.

But an Iloilo-based environmental group said using hair and feathers to clean up the oil slick might not be such a good idea after all.

Melvin Purzuelo of the Save Our Seas Movement said using hair and feather in the oil spill booms could do more harm than good for the environment.

“Chicken feathers smell bad. We need to reduce the smell so we can use these feathers otherwise we’ll just add to the bunker oil fumes,” Purzuelo said.

Hair would take very long time to decompose, not to mention the chemical treatments made before these were cut that could affect other life forms like seagrasses and mangroves, he added.

“With no less than President [Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo] pitching for the gathering of hairs, we expect these coming in very huge volumes soon,” Purzuelo said.

The Save Our Seas Movement is calling on technologists, scientists and engineers to provide practical solutions and operational support for the community-based clean-up and rehabilitation activities of the oil spill triggered by the sinking MT Solar 1 off the coast of Guimaras.

Locally available absorbent materials like rice straws, corn cobs, jute sacks, and saw dusts have been used as indigenous oil spill booms to contain and collect oil from the Guimaras shores and the towns of Ajuy and Concepcion in Northern Iloilo, said Purzuelo.

At the Quezon City jail, warden Col. Ignacio Panti said the inmates willingly agreed to shave off their hair Tuesday afternoon.

Hundreds of inmates at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa also joined the campaign and cut off their hair.

Two inmates, Ricardo Perlos and Jun Estacio, said they agreed to go bald as a way of thanking the government for abolishing the death penalty.

“In a way, donating my hair to help the environment lessens my sins,” Estacio said.

Serafin Barretto, chief of the Bureau of Jail Managemnent and Penology in the capital, urged other jail wardens to encourage inmates in Metro Manila to do the same thing.

Environmental group Greenpeace earlier said hair, rice straw and corncobs could be used as makeshift booms to absorb the oil.

(From ABS-CBN News and INQ7.net, Aug. 29, 2006.)

DOH eyeing relocation of kids, elderly in Guimaras

CHILDREN, elderly folk and pregnant women from the central Philippine island-province of Guimaras are due for relocation as health officials reported that toxic fumes at oil-smeared beaches have risen to alarming levels.

Initial ambient monitoring by the Department of Health (DOH) showed that potentially toxic organic components from two study areas in Guimaras were beyond the minimum risk levels for humans.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the DOH “shall be recommending the relocation of children, elderly, and pregnant women from the oil spill-contaminated area if repeated ambient air monitoring continues to be poor, which may significantly affect their health condition.”

“Those with preexisting conditions such as respiratory, cardiac, kidney or neurological disorders, among others are also at risk,” he added.

Health officials also found that 29 residents in Tando and La Paz villages in severely hit Nueva Valencia town have experienced dizziness, headaches, coughs, shortness of breath and chest pains.

Some villagers were also found to suffer from redness, rashes and other skin problems.

Almost all of the residents in the study were taken from Tando village. They were aged two to 75 years old, with four children and 25 adults.

“Many chemicals in bunker oil are potentially toxic and therefore we must constantly monitor the affected communities. Health effects are also wide and can be acute and mild as skin irritation to something chronic and severe like cancers and leukemia,” Duque said.

The DOH recently downplayed reports that a Guimaras resident suffered heart attack after having difficulty breathing due to toxic fumes.

It said the fatality Remelio Dalida, 26, was drinking the night before he died and had a history of hypertension.

(For the full story, click GMANews.TV. Story published Aug. 29, 2006.)

This takes the cake!

It’s now ‘Solar oil spill’

By Christine Avendaño

INAMPULUGAN ISLAND, Guimaras – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said yesterday the oil spill that hit Guimaras Island should be called the “Solar oil spill.”

“Let us not call it the Guimaras oil spill. Guimaras should not be blamed for it,” she said in Filipino during a media pool interview at the Costa Aguada island resort here.

Ms. Arroyo underscored the need to tell the public that the spill did not cover the whole of Guimaras Island.

While the incident has resulted in 300 cancellations of reservations in some beach resorts, she said that authorities all the more should work to restore the people’s confidence in the island’s tourist attraction.

She said she was inviting Lory Tan, of the World Wide Fund for Nature, to join Task Force Guimaras in supervising rehabilitation efforts and cited the need for more scientific studies to help the affected areas.

Tourism Secretary Ace Durano, who suggested changing the appellation of the spill, told the President at a meeting of the task force that the spill affected only seven of the 24 beach resorts on the island.

Tan told reporters he and the others at the meeting agreed to the change of the spill’s name.

“If we say Guimaras oil spill, we’re going to kill Guimaras,” Tan said. “If we say MT Solar I, at least the tanker has sunk.”

He noted that the massive oil spill that happened in Alaska in 1989 was referred to as the Exxon Valdez oil spill after the tanker that caused the disaster.

Some reporters witnessed an irritated President telling certain people that she wanted the media to see a resort not affected by the oil spill. The Costa Aguada resort has been affected by the spill, as evidenced by spill booms deployed nearby. (See earlier post below)

(Click PDI for the story, published Aug. 29, 2006.)

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ARE these guys serious? How many hours did this presidential task force meet yesterday, and at a beautiful resort at that, only to come up with a laughable decision like this? Puro swimming lang ang ginawa nyo ano?

Why can’t we call it “Petron oil spill”? Obviously the government is already staging the scenario where only the oil tanker’s owners will be found responsible for the oil spill, while Petron officials will just be slapped on the wrist.

I wouldn’t put it past Gloria. After all, Nick Alcantara is the brother of Tommy Alcantara, former Trade and Industry Undersecretary and no. 1 GMA superfan. Tommy and Nick belong to a powerful and influential Alcantara family from the south with businesses in several industries under the Alsons Group of Companies. Tommy also heads the de-facto Philippine Embassy in Taiwan called the Manila Economic Cooperation Office.

And of course, Gloria is buddy-buddy with Saudi Aramco President and CEO Abdallah S. Jum’ah, whose facilities she visited last May.

Abdallah S. Jum’ah takes Philippines President Gloria Arroyo on a tour of Saudi Aramco’s Shaybah facilities. (Photo by Hadi A. Al-Makayyal/Saudi Aramco Click here.)

By the way, Nick, weren’t you once treasurer and director of All Asia Capital and Trust Corp., that ill-fated investment company of Roland Young which went belly up in the late 90s? Didn’t you guys the blame the Asian financial crisis for your woes? How convenient. Well, weren’t you lucky to be appointed to Petron right after that disaster?

Here’s Nick Alcantara at a Petron press conference on Aug. 24. Remember the name, remember the face. (Bullit Marquez/AP)

PDI Editorial: Polluters pay

WHAT could possibly be the worst oil spill disaster to hit the country is now engaging the attention of government and private agencies as well as foreign organizations. And well that it should, because it is affecting the lives of tens of thousands of people and damaging extensive areas of sea and land. Its effects could last well beyond the present decade.

The first concern, of course, is to contain the oil spill to prevent it from causing more damage than it has already done. The second is to give aid to the tens of thousands of people whose livelihood has been affected by the pollution of the sea in which they fish and of the land on which they plant. The third is to pinpoint responsibility for the sea disaster and penalize the guilty parties. And the fourth is to pass laws and lay down guidelines to prevent a repetition of the disaster and mitigate the damage caused by similar accidents.

On the third point, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez has said that Petron Corp. could be legally responsible for the massive oil spill off Guimaras Island. He likened the oil spill to the Philsports (formerly Ultra) arena stampede during the staging of the “Wowowee” show last Feb. 4.

Petron has said that “technically, the liability for the oil spill damage rests with the ship owner.” It also said it felt it had a moral responsibility to give aid to the affected communities.

It should be impressed upon Petron that it has a legal, and not just a moral, responsibility to make restitution for the damage that the oil spill is causing. Petron should be reminded of the internationally accepted principle that “the polluter pays.” The principle is that a company that causes pollution should pay for the cost of removing it, or provide compensation to those that have been affected by it.

The principle has received strong support in most of the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Community. In 1989 the Council of the OECD approved the Guiding Principles Relating to Accidental Pollution. One if its provisions says: “In most instances and notwithstanding issues concerning the origin of the accident, the cost of such reasonable measures taken by the authorities is initially borne by the operator for administrative convenience or for other reasons. When a third party is liable for the accident, that party reimburses to the operator the cost of reasonable measures to control accidental pollution taken after an accident.”

(Click here for the rest of the piece, published Aug. 29, 2006 in the Phil. Daily Inquirer.)